‘It Follows’ Won’t Get Its VOD Release This Weekend — And That’s A Bad Move

Over the weekend, I did something out of the ordinary — at least for me: I put on real clothes and walked to the Angelika Film Center in Soho and saw It Follows in a real movie theater. The film, written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, is an inventive, horrific tour-de-force, an honest-to-goodness scary movie that manages to be as smart and clever as it is bone-chilling. Maika Monroe (The Guest) stars as a teenage girl named Jay who, after a sexual encounter on a date, is soon followed by a shape-shifting entity that wants to murder her — unless she sexually passes it on to another person.

It’s the kind of indie sleeper hit that pops up a couple times a year — think of it as this year’s equivalent of last fall’s truly scary film, The Babadook, which gained a fan based after it received positive reviews and became available on VOD platforms. But if you were hoping that It Follows would come to a living room (or a laptop, or a tablet) near you any time soon, you’re out of luck: the film, which is distributed by Weinstein Company’s VOD-focused label Radius-TWC, has postponed the planned online/on-demand release following the film’s strong debut in theaters.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX38jXwnRAM]

As The Wrap reports, It Follows was supposed to debut on VOD platforms this Friday. But its initial theatrical release two weeks ago brought in a good chunk of money — $160,000 among its four theaters in L.A. and New York. In response, Radius-TWC expanded the film’s release to 40 theaters last weekend and aim to bring it to 1,000 theaters this week.

It’s a good move for theater owners, for sure, who are set to to profit over audiences checking out the horror film outside of their home. As Patrick Corcoran, the spokesperson for the National Association of Theater Owners, told The Wrap, “It’s good to see that TWC understood that a short or simultaneous VOD window limited the earnings potential of It Follows.” It’s common sense that the association would applaud Radius-TWC’s movie — VOD releases severely reduce their profits. And, yes, filmmaking is a business, but theatrical releases are not the only ways in which a studio can make money while also broadening a small indie film’s audience.

It Follows is a rarity: it’s an independent, small-budget movie without any stars that will have large appeal solely because of its genre. But the main appeal of the film so far is its quiet, slow-burn nature. It’s a Cannes-approved horror film that has more in common with a thoughtful Sofia Coppola drama than a gruesome Wes Craven slasher. It’s the kind of horror movie that, given the potential for hype, could turn off mass audiences who expect big scares rather than a slow, moody, creepy pace. We’ve seen how a strong marketing push and a wide release can tarnish the legacy of an otherwise small, considerate genre film — The Blair Witch Project, anyone? Pushing a wide theatrical release for It Follows gives the film an opportunity for a larger audience, for sure, but it also potentially waters it down in an appeal for the lowest common denominator of filmgoers.

A VOD release, on the other hand, has the potential for the film to gain a more organic audience. And promoting an on-demand release would drastically change how the industry approaches its distribution practices, as there’s still a stigma surrounding smaller movies that don’t get those big theatrical runs. VOD seems too often like the straight-to-video hell of the ’90s, which suggests a bad movie as opposed to a prestige film. But that’s not always the case, and one can look to a trio Radius-TWC’s other day-and-date releases as proof: Snowpiercer, Bachelorette, and Blue Ruin. All had simultaneous theatrical and VOD releases, and all of them are great films that received critical praise and gained an audience naturally over a period of months as customers were able to stream them from their homes. Snowpiercer, the Radius-TWC film with the highest profile, made, according to The Wrap, $8 million from VOD sales and rentals — almost twice as much as it made in theaters.

Now, imagine if Radius-TWC actually marketed its smaller, VOD-released films the way they would those theatrical releases (like, for instance, the way Sony did with The Interview, which grossed over $40MM on VOD). If studios would make the effort to make their films not just available to audiences who, say, don’t live in metropolitan areas with indie cinemas (yet still embrace independent films despite having to wait for them to become available on streaming platforms), they would reach a much larger audience. In our current time, technology has allowed for smaller films with less substantial marketing budgets to gain larger reach. Why don’t smaller distributors take advantage of that fact, especially since the craven commercialization of the big-screen multiplexes are, in fact, a turn off for many consumers who just want to see a good movie and not shell out for overpriced popcorn and soda?

I reached out to Radius-TWC to ask how the decision was made, and if there had been any precedent from their earlier releases. (Citizenfour, a recent Oscar winner for Best Documentary, had a theatrical release before premiering on HBO last month. It was a Radius-TWC release that did make it to VOD.) I also asked if there is a new date for the film’s VOD premiere. A rep from Radius-TWC did not offer a comment.